The bronze medal in Rio comes in a year when Bollywood has produced two wrestling dramas, including Walt Disney India's upcoming 'Dangal.'
Bollywood was jubilant on Thursday amid news that India has won its first medal at the Rio Olympics, with Sakshi Malik picking up a women's wrestling bronze.
The win is historic as it is the first-ever Olympic medal to be won by an Indian female wrestler. Malik is also one of only four Indian female athletes to win an Olympic medal.
As news of her win broke Thursday morning Indian time, news channels aired wall-to-wall coverage with clips of her winning bout in the 58 kilo freestyle wrestling category against Kyrgyzstan's Aisuluu Tynybekova.
“I always wanted to be the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal and today I have achieved that as a result of so many years of hard work,” Sakshi was quoted as saying in Hindi to news channel ABP TV.
Congratulatory messages poured in on social media for the 23-year-old winner as #SakshiMalik became a top trending topic on Twitter in India.
Big-name celebrities who lauded the win included Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, who posted a series of tweets to his 21.9 million followers, and actor Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire), who is currently starring in the second season of the Hindi remake of Fox's 24 and who congratulated Malik by saying “stars like you make India shine.
Actress Tina Desai, whose credits include Netflix's Sense8, which is currently filming its second season, wrote: “Enjoy that you've made history.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a series of tweets praising Malik's achievement given the challenges faced by aspiring female wrestlers in the country. The male-dominated sport has historically not encouraged women, but more women have challenged traditional norms and taken up the sport in recent times.
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